The art of landscaping is being able to merge natural elements to illicit a sense of order where the end result still appears natural. In other words, landscaping is taking a piece of land, combining a number of different natural pieces that mesh with one another in the hope that when it's all finished you can finally stand back and admire the setting as though God had created it Himself.

And, while that has been the mantra for many decades the tide is shifting toward re-using recycled building materials in our landscapes rather than buying new all the time. It makes sense to reuse because the amount of recycled material available is always increasing.

So, how can you create a landscape using only recycled building materials? Just watch....

The Garden Path

Garden pathways are the easiest way to reuse building material as it can come in any format. Firstly, you could create your path by simply re-laying pavers lifted from another property. Another alternative is to design a garden path based on your recycled material. Crushed brick or limestone is a much more planet-savvy idea than decorative pebbles and reuses a material that would often go to landfill.

Retaining Walls

Reusing garden sleepers is one option to make a retaining wall without dishing out for expensive new items. Even gleaning free rocks from building sites can help put this landscape item to bed. But, if you're looking for the best option for making retaining walls then you can't go past second-hand bricks. If they don't match, or aren't even of the same style, they can be hidden with a rendered face.

Garden Fencing

While I have already written a post on garden fences which offer some ideas for using recycled building materials they are really only the items that we would naturally consider. What about the packaging items that building sites use? Well, here's one site that cleverly demonstrates how to make a recycled bucket wall using 5 gallon buckets. Many of these end up in landfill or littered around our communities.

Garden Whimsy

Second-hand doors and windows can also be used as items to create interest in your garden. Adding these to a wall, or even making a wall or privacy screen out of them will be very cost effective and help limit the amount of new materials you're adding to your yard.

Really, there is no limit to the amount of ideas you could come up with to use recycled building materials. It all depends on you and whether you can think "outside the box" to limit your use of new materials.